The Schaefer Center’s 2015-16 performance series, presented by Appalachian State University’s Office of Arts and Cultural Programs, offers students, faculty, staff and the community a diverse array of music, theatre and dance designed to enrich the cultural landscape of the campus and surrounding area. By creating memorable performance experiences and related educational and outreach activities, the series promotes the power and excitement of the live performance experience; provides a “window on the world” through the artistry of nationally and internationally renowned artists and showcases some of the finest artists of our nation and our region. For more information, visit http://theschaefercenter.org.

The series will kick off with the Appalachia-inspired singer/songwriter, violinist and banjo player Rhiannon Giddens. Giddens is best known for her success as the founding front woman of the African American country, blues and old-time band the Carolina Chocolate Drops, whose 2010 album “Genuine Negro Jig” earned the group a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album. The Greensboro native is also a founding member of the super group New Basement Tapes, a studio collaboration celebrating the discovery of never-seen Bob Dylan lyrics from his legendary 1967 recordings known as the Basement Tapes. Giddens’s solo album “Tomorrow Is My Turn” is among NPR Music’s 25 Favorite Albums of 2015, her strong, folk-infused voice reminding listeners of the genre’s well-known singer/songwriters Allison Krauss and Patsy Cline.

Directed by acclaimed choreographer Henry Smith, the Lakota Sioux Indian Dance Theatre has educated, entertained and enlightened audiences all over the world for more than three decades. The company communicates the powerful messages and resonance of dance and song in Plains Indian Society – at the center of a living history and oral tradition in American Indian society. Performing all over the world — from the Millennium Celebration in Times Square to the Cultural Olympiad in Greece, The Lakota Sioux Indian Dance Theatre began in 1978 with the support of traditional Lakota Indian educators, healers, community leaders, championship powwow dancers, singers and storytellers. Its signature work allows the opportunity for people of all ages to experience the holistic worldview of the Lakota Sioux.

With sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, David Sedaris has become one of America’s pre-eminent humor writers. The great skill with which he slices through cultural euphemisms and political correctness proves that Sedaris is a master of satire and one of the most observant writers addressing the human condition today. David Sedaris is the author of “Barrel Fever” and “Holidays on Ice,” as well as collections of personal essays, “Naked,” “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” “Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim,” “When You Are Engulfed in Flames,” and his most recent book, “Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls,” each of which became an immediate bestseller. Sedaris’s pieces appear regularly in The New Yorker and have twice been included in “The Best American Essays.” There are a total of ten million copies of his books in print and they have been translated into 25 languages. David Sedaris’s original radio pieces can often be heard on the public radio show This American Life.

After spending six years with the Southern rock band Drive-By Truckers, singer/guitarist and Alabama native Jason Isbell left the group in 2007 to pursue a solo career. Isbell had already honed his songwriting skills during his tenure with the Truckers, and he funneled those talents into “Sirens of the Ditch,” a bluesy, punk-infused album played in guitar tones and Southern swagger that marked his solo debut in summer 2007. Backed by a new band dubbed the 400 Unit, Isbell took his songs on the road and soon began writing another album, which he recorded with the 400 Unit in 2008. Released the following year, “Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit” was another step away from his work with Drive-By Truckers, relying as much on melancholic country ballads as on the familiar Muscle Shoals sound.Compared to his earlier albums, his new album “Something More Than Free” has a feeling of celebration, which reflects his upcoming fatherhood and a forward-facing momentum.

In this profoundly moving, breathtaking, and deeply human play, Shakespeare shows us a world on fire; a world where some of history’s most famous men commit horrific crimes in the name of patriotism and honor. Based on the history of ancient Rome, senators fear the advancement of Julius Caesar’s power over the empire after he makes a victorious return to the capitol from war. One of these senators, Marcus Brutus, agrees to conspire and execute a plan to kill Caesar. “Julius Caesar” is a dazzling thrill ride of betrayal, violence, and perhaps most surprisingly — love.

In effort to prove his right to rule, King Henry V prepares to invade France and, upon discovering their conspiracy against him, condemns his three friends to dead. This story of England’s hero-king and the greatest upset in European military history is Shakespeare’s finale to his great history plays. More than that, Henry V – at once touching, heroic, savage, and comic – explores the nature of greatness and its connection to theatre; and, perhaps more than any other of Shakespeare’s works, it makes the audience part of the story.

About American Shakespeare Center

Through its performances, theatres, exhibitions, and educational programs, the American Shakespeare Center seeks to make Shakespeare, the joys of theatre and language, and the communal experience of the Renaissance stage accessible to all. By re-creating Renaissance conditions of performance, the ASC explores its repertory of plays for a better understanding of these great works and of the human theatrical enterprise past, present, and future.

Delivering New Orleans, boogie-woogie jazz performances that are each unexpected and unique to the next, Dr. John is praised for his funky, bluesy influence on rock that has landed him a spot on the Hall of Fame and won him six Grammy Awards. Since gaining a cult following in the late 1960s, Dr. John has recorded over 20 albums and in 1973 scored a top-20 hit with the jaunty, funk-flavored “Right Place, Wrong Time,” still perhaps his best-known song. After a half century of creating music for others and himself, Dr. John continues to write, arrange, produce and interpret with a passion that has yet to wane.

Contra Tiempo is a Los Angeles-based dance company, founded and directed by Ana Maria Alvarez, dedicated to transforming the world through dance. Contra Tiempo fuses Salsa, Afro-Cuban, and contemporary urban and abstract dance theater, to create an invigorating blend of physically intense and politically astute performance work. While their performances are consistently electrifying, what sets the company apart most is its unique relationship to its own community. Each company member lives, expresses, and struggles within the varied and infinitely complex political and personal landscapes that Alvarez seeks to address in her work.

Tickets:

Tickets for these events go on sale August 17, 2015 at 9 a.m. at the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts box office and online at http://theschaefercenter.org. The Office of Arts & Cultural Programs is committed to affordable ticket prices, with prices for all events ranging from $15-$40. A faculty/staff and retired faculty/staff discount is available when tickets are purchased over the phone or at the box office. To purchase tickets, call or visit the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts box office at 828-262-4046 or go online at http://theschaefercenter.org.